A world unbalanced
by rabmudtz
Summary: The story starts with the gaang being split up after Azula &CO. finds them. Our heroes have to try to find their way back together, and the way back to ending the war that threatens to engulf the world in flames. The gaang travels and find bitterness, love, anger and themselves, realizing that "changing mistakes in a world full of hate never changes anything" - Dropkick Murphys
1. Crazy ambush

**Okay everyone, the story starts somewhere around when the Gaang was hunted by Azula and stop for the night in the mountains. Remember, this is my first story, so please go easy on me in the reviews. Please feel free to tell me your thoughts and so on, I'd love to hear 'em. Reviews make the chapters update faster. :P**

**I don't own ATLA, or any of the characters, they belong to Nicelodeon/ Mike and Bryan (thanks for the best TV series in my life!) Anyhow, enjoy!**

"Quickly, get on Appa!" Aang shouted, as the blue fire was shooting through the air, trying to incinerate them all. Toph and Sokka were stuck on a ledge, dodging the sharp knifes that flew through the smoke and dust. Aang deflected another fiery attack with a spinning shield of air as Katara made it onto Appa's back.

"Yip-yip!" Appa quickly climed into the air, desperately trying to avoid the burning blue flames that wanted to set his fur on fire. Toph and Sokka, however, were having troubles getting by. As the happy circus girl danced around in the heat of battle she hit Sokka in the back with a few quick jabs. He fell to the ground and lay there like a very content, very sleeping seal.

Aang and Katara could only watch as their friends got from a bad situation to a worse, as the arrogant looking girl in the fire-nation armour was cooly firing fireball after fireball to keep them separated from their friends. As they watched with increasing dread they noticed a small glimmer of steel heading towards Toph, who was trying to get Sokka of the ground. A spot of crimson red appeared as the knife cut through her upper arm. She cried out in shock, and Sokka shouted to Katara, "GO! We'll be alright!"

Katara was just about ready to jump the 7 metres from Appa down to the ground when she saw the arrogant girl send a massive wall of fire towards Sokka and Toph, who disappeared as their ledge fell down into the abyss below. A large plume of dust and rocks rose into the sky as half the Gaang fell towards a stony fate.

"Sokka! SOKKA!" Katara yelled at the top of her voice, desperately wanting to go down and save her brother who was right now falling down a cliff. A bolt of cracking lightning fired from that arrogant BITCH forced her to rethink; Appa was nudged by the lightning and lost control as his fur started burning. The huge creature sped into the sky not listening to Aang's shouts and Katara could only watch as the mountains disappeared from beneath them and were replaced by dark clouds.

Back on the mountain Azula looked into the sky were the flying bison had disappeared. Ty Lee and Mai looked over the edge of the cliff into the ravine below. They couldn't see a thing except for the think stone dust that stung their eyes. There certainly wasn't any movement down there. They came over to Azula, Mai offering only a disinterested "Is that everything?", Azula stood still for a while, then silently nodded and they left. In her mind however, she was already calculating how she would find her prey again...

Up in the sky, the thin air eventually put out the fire in Appas fur and the shaken boy and girl's flight evened out. Aang silently pulled the reins, not knowing what else to do, bringing them down to earth by a small cave. They slid down Appa, taking care not to touch the charred flesh and went into the cave silently. As the rain began to fall outside, they sat by the entrance of the cave, huddled against Appa in the cold night air.

Aang hugged Katara as she held on to him and the tears streamed down her face. Neither of them spoke a word. In the distance they heard the rumbling of thunder, natural thunder this time, and they fell asleep in each other's arms that night without the usual warmth of a campfire.

Far away, at the bottom of a stony ravine, a young blind girl noisily smashed her way out of a recent landslide and dragged a lazy older boy by his ponytail with her. His only comment when they got out was, "Sheesh, wthat was some rockalide!" while her only sarcastic thought was: Oh g_reat. I'm stuck with Snoozles._


	2. Foodless but not alone

"Where the hell are we!?" The darkness was all around them and Sokka couldn't see a thing. He and Toph had just emerged from the landslide caused by Toph's evasive action of cutting off the ledge from the mountain.

"Calm down, woman" Toph replied, "We gotta find shelter before the sky falls down on us!" And that seemed like an actual possibility, the rain was becoming a downpour and the previously stony ground was become more and more like mud by the second. Sokka knew he had been shot down and followed Toph who had started to sprint away towards a tree in the distance.

It proved impossible to create a campfire due to the falling rain and the ground turned so flooded that Toph had to raise up a stone plateau for them, and then create an earth-tent. They sat beneath the hard earth walls and listened to the rain as it crashed down around their improvised shelter. "Have you got any food?" Sokka's question resulted in a hard punch to his arm. "I just saved your sleeping girly butt from some crazy ladies with anger-management issues and you're complaining about being hungry?"

"Pretty much" Sokka answered, "Eating is essential to my way of life."

"No really, because I thought it was just something you could chose to in order to survive or not." The sarcasm would have been clear even to a four-year old.

Outside the downpour became a flood, and several smaller shrubs floated down the rocky hillside. Toph and Sokka slid further back into the tent and settled for a LONG night.

"We lost our sleeping bags, didn't we?"

"Yupp."

"And our extra clothing?"

"Right."

"Not to mention the blankets?"

"Them too."

"And the food."

-PUNCH-

The two of them sat for a while in silence, then Toph exclaimed, "This is too quiet, you need to say something. What do you think happened to Twinkletoes and Sugarqueen?"

"I don't know, looked like they got away pretty easily, they're probably sitting in a warm Earth Kingdom inn somewhere, having a warm dinner..." Toph didn't bother to hit him again, she just sighed, and he continued in a fake upper-class dialect that barely masked his humor "Why Toph, you seem ever so slightly frustrated, now whyever are you that?" Sokka said with a smile. Toph chuckled, "Maybe because I'm stuck with a food-crazy, overly sarcastic Snoozles?"

"A food-crazy, overly sarcastic and _handsome _Snoozles." Sokka corrected her and she laughed at his funny confidence. "I just hope my sister isn't sitting being all over-emotional that we had to split up"

"I don't know Sokka, Sugarqueen IS really over-emotional" Toph said, "You should probably find her before she cries her heart out and hooks up with Twinkletoes..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sokka's protective older brother sense was obviously tingling and Toph quickly answered "Relax, pony-tail boy, I was only teasing you. But what _should _we do after this flood goes by?"

"Well, we need to find Aang and Katara, but I don't think we'll ever catch up to them if we just try to track them, Appa is too fast..."

"So..."

"We should head to Ba Sing Se and meet up with them there, we have no way to find them otherwise, we could spend years chasing them across the Earth Kingdom." Toph looked at him. She could tell by the vibrations in the ground that he wanted nothing more than to find his little sister this moment and protect her from the fire nation as he had done his entire life, but he realized it would be impossible. So he chose the most reasonable option."

"Ok, so what way is that?"

"Well I am the map-master, and Ba Sing Se is in the far eastern part of the Earth kingdom, but we need to start by heading north, towards a place called the Serpent's Pass, it should take us a few weeks, then we're almost at the capital. Once there it should be easy to find Aang and Katara, people _kinda _tend to notice the big, furry Appa."

Toph laughed again, and hugged Sokka, saying goodnight. She lay down to sleep thinking that maybe Snoozles wasn't so bad after all, this was one of the first nights she spent sleeping without a guard outside her bedroom door, and in the company of a friend. Although she would never admit it, she was very thankful that she wasn't sleeping alone in the cold night while the rain flooded the hillside outside the earth tent.

**Ahright, so this was my second chapter, what do you people think? REVIEWS please, they make my writing alot more fun, don't be afraid to tell me what you think. Anyhow, peace out, and goodnight. :)**


	3. Burning memories

**Hey folks, here's a much longer chapter, sat up half the night working on it! :) Aang's past makes a nasty reminder of itself, find out for yourselves! :D I don't think I'll be able to update until Thursday, I've got ALOT of schoolwork to go through, anyhow: peace out until then! :)**

He woke with her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Aang smiled happily, now this wasn't a very bad start to his day. Then he felt the cold. The southern air temple had been one of the coldest places you could visit on Earth, and none of the monks had worn any type of thick fur, seeing the cold as a daily reminder of their vulnerability to the elements, and to feel closer to the wind and air, not to mention all of nature.

Aang had, however, gotten used to the warmer climates they were travelling through, the earth kingdom certainly was a warmer place than the Patola mountain range. So this morning chill surprised him, but he decided to get up and check out where they had landed and fallen asleep. Behind him Katara protested in her sleep to the removal of a warm body to hug but snuggled more into Appa's furry side.

Aang looked at her for a moment, _she looks really innocent when she's sleeping_ he thought. Leaving the cave and checking the surroundings he discovered they were at the base of the mountains that they had passed through before the gang had been separated by the crazy girls that had cartwheeled around, thrown daggers and lightning at them. _They sure seemed more professional than Zuko_. Speaking of those crazy girls, he noticed a cut in his forearm, which had passed unnoticed until now. It wasn't very deep, only slightly swollen. _I better ask Katara to have a look at it later._

The sun was just coming over the rocky tops of the mountains and shining down on a vast, green canopy of lush leaves that stretched on for several miles. In the distance a river reflected the lights of the rising sun and looked like a snake by the horizon, and after that a village, or town, the size was difficult to discern so far away.

Aang made his way down into the forest, searching for some berries or nuts to gather for breakfast, he was feeling hungry. Following the sound of a stream he found a large shrub with many small, clustered, red berries. Had he not been raised to find the right berries, fruits and nuts he might have picked them, but it would have led to him going blind. They were _makkaoli berries_ and caused blindness and many inexperienced travellers ate them believing they were _pakkowee berries_ that was an antidote to the white jade bush. There even went around a rumour of a crazy old forester who had tried to make tea out of the white jade bush and nearly died as a result. Earth kingdom inns had the funniest of stories.

Having found a healthy amount of hazelnuts and various other edible gifts of nature Aang took a shortcut through a densely vegetated part of the hillside to get back to the cave he practically fell over the limp body of a platypus-cow. The ground around it was full of blood, partly dry. Aang let out a quick cry of shock. The leg of the creature was stuck in a horrific trap with rusty iron spikes that had snapped around and through the poor animal's leg. Aang could see a part of the red, torn muscle fibre hanging loose from the bone and had gotten stuck to a thorny branch in the death throes of the creature. He fought the urge to vomit and quickly hurried back towards the cave. _It's not just the Fire nation I have to protect the world from_, he thought, _this is just as cruel as the war Sozin started_. _I could already have stopped this. This war could have been over and these sorts of traps could have been outlawed if I hadn't run away like I did._ The familiar feelings of guilt, shame and grief threaten to return like they had every night until he had talked about it with Katara. _My family could still be alive, my PEOPLE could still be alive. Gyatso. I wonder what he thought of when he died, did he still blame me for running away? Was I a disappointment to him, to all of them?_

The angst returned with full force as he remembered the bones of the closest thing he would relate to as a father lying in that spirit-forsaken ruin of a structure that had once been a storehouse. His mentor's bones, his teacher's, friend's, everything. The tears welled up in his eyes as he remembered all the monks he had ever met, Mii the woman bison care-taker, who had given him the apple he gave to Appa the first day he had met him. Lobsang, Tulku and Seng, all of his friends, burned alive, the most painful way to go of them all. Meanwhile he had been stuck in a block of ice, resting peacefully while his friends and family burned to death. By the time he woke up from his cool rest, they were all gone, only the bones remained.

Katara found him at the foot of a rock, arms hugging his pulled-up legs, his eyes red and puffy, his lower lip trembling when she asked what the matter was, the berries that had been dropped without a thought.

She immediately ran to him and held him close, he was shivering with cold, or sadness, she couldn't tell which. She noticed a nasty gash on his forearm that had turned a nasty shade of blue-ish green. He couldn't say a word; every time he tried it fell into shaking sobs. She sat there, holding and stroking his arm, whispering that everything was ok; that he had her she was here for him and that that would never change. She managed to lead him back to the cave, where-after she hurried out to gather some fire-wood, she wouldn't be spending another freezing night without some light and warmth.

When she got back Aang had fallen asleep, or passed out. Katara could see his eyes darting around underneath his eyelids; a few drops of sweat having formed on his brow. She swept one of their few blankets around him and climbed on Appa, checking if they had any food left, not much, but it was better than nothing.

Gyatso sat infront of him, legs crossed in the traditional lotus position. He looked worried, countless generations of air nomads had come before him, but would countless more come after? _You left us Aang. _The voices of his people, every one that he had met rang around him, _We needed you, and you left, you ran away._ "I'm sorry, I had no idea what would happen- what would happen to you!"

"Gyatso, please, you know I'd never betray you, any of you!" His voice was cracked, and the tears were streaming down his face. Gyatso looked at him, his deep, grey eyes as unpredictable and unobservable as the winds themselves. And he burned. It started like the frayed edges of a paper, a small cinder. It grew and grew until the flame became a bonfire and the skin peeled off, revealing muscle, then bone. All the while Gyatso was still alive, always watching. _We need you Aang._ Now his teacher and father-figure was a bonfire, Aang raised his arm to shield himself from the heat, but that only caused his own robe to catch fire. Then he was burned, feeling the fire eat him alive, gnawing off every last piece of flesh on his body until he was just a skeleton like Gyatso infront of him with his chain that signaled him as the master airbender around his neck. Just like he found him in the southern air temple.

He awoke with a shout. He was burning, the nightmare never stopped, as the night and next day went by, the delusions and fever got worse, Katara didn't know what she would do, she tried to heal him using waterbending, but she couldn't feel his chi channels, they were hopelessly jumbled so she could only try to cool him down as best she could. She had heard stories as a child of "ghost memories" in the south pole, memories that haunted many of the tribe's greatest historical warriors, sometimes passing by of themselves, some never leaving, causing the afflicted to become cursed for life to relive their ghost memories.

Aang was stuck in his dreams and crazy views for two more days. After that the fever gradually diminished, and he became more awake and aware of who and where he was. They left the cave as soon as he got better, heading towards the nearest Earth kingdom town, taking their chances with hypothetical Fire nation loyalists, neither of them wanting to spend another night in the cave that had become more and more of an infested, sick place as they were stuck there. Staying at a small but homely inn "in" the countryside, Aang and Katara felt, for the first time in over a week, that they could fall asleep without having to be ready to wake up at a moments notice to flee from unknown pursuers or support a severely sick friend. They both fell asleep before they hit the pillows.

Many miles away, a scarred prince followed the tracks of a landslide, searching for footprints in the recent muddy flood...


	4. Just hanging around

**Ok, so I just had to continue writing, it's becoming something of a habit that I really enjoy. Btw this story just passed 100 views! :D Thanks to you readers out there! Oh right, I forgot to mention that I do in no way own A:TLA, if I did... that would be awesome, but unfortunately I don't. :( Anyhow, here's the next chapter!**

Zzzz... Zzzzzzz... ZZZZZ... PUNCH!

Sokka's "peaceful" snoring was cut short when Toph's morning temper made it remembered when it snapped and struck out at the innocent Sokka. "Wake up Snoozles, it's morning!"

"Is lunch ready yet?"

"What?"

"Then it's not time to get up."

Toph watched him; he was rather cute when his hair was in disorder and his voice sounding all sleepy. That did not, however, warrant him being a pain in the ass. A quick earth bending attack sent him flying screaming in alarm out of the tent, landing face down in the wet mud underneath a lonesome tree.

Toph laughed merrily, Sokka didn''t lift his head. "Oh man up, and get up!" Toph told him between her hysterical laughs but he didn't answer. _Maybe he isn't as tough as he looks_, Toph was surprised, Sokka wasn't one to lie around, even when hurt. Closer inspection revealed he was not hurt, but had, in fact, fallen asleep again.

She shook her head in disbelief, _how the hell can he fall asleep that fast?_ She looked around for a prank to play on her sleeping friend, the closest being the tree he had landed underneath. Shaking the ground around it sent the shocks up through the roots, up the trunk, into the branches and to the water-covered leaves. A cold _matin_ shower woke him up faster than she had ever seen anybody rise from a deep, near sedated slumber to instant clarity. "I'm awake!" He yelled as he was soaked from head to toe with ice-cold droplets of water.

"He-ey!" His voice broke at a time most inconvenient and Toph doubled over in laughter for the second time that morning. "The water was uncalled for, Toph." He continued, trying to restore some lost dignity to his manly image of himself, "I'm gonna freeze my ponytail off if you continue in this pace!"

"Oh-no, what a nightmare!" Toph smiled, and if sarcasm been a combustible gas, one would only have needed to strike one match to set the whole mountainside alight in flames.

"Mind you, this ponytail is a vital part of my image as a warrior, and leader of the group."

"Soaking wet warrior." Toph reminded him, and shoved him in a friendly manner, let's find some breakfast. That put Sokka in a better mood, until they found that foraging would be difficult, the recent rain made any walking in the terrain very slow, and very arduous work.

Somewhere before noon they found a round, truth to be told it was nothing more than a few wheel tracks in the ground and it was muddy, but not quite as wet as the rest of the muddy landscape. "Left or right?" Toph asked,

"I think it was a while since we took a road to the right." Sokka answered after much philosophizing upon the matter.

"Sounds good to me, I think I can feel faint vibrations from that direction, I think there is a town not that far away."

"That means new clothes!"

"And real food!"

"Maybe we can find out something about Aang and Katara, if they are headed to the capital or if they're trying to double back and find us."

As the two of them headed towards the town, a very angry and very muddy prince a few kilometres back found their encampment (pretty much just the earth tent) and in the mud, that had since morning hardened and preserved any indentations, clear footprints, of two teenagers, judging by their depth one was probably a boy and the other a girl. _Great, just my day, _the sarcasm never left that place (stories later passed down by local townsfolk told of a hillside where people were prone to argue and drop harsh sarcastic comments) _But I guess half of the group is easier to take than all of them together. Maybe I can use them as bait to get the others before Azula. If only Uncle was here to help me..._

The town Toph had sensed so slightly proved to be a just that, a town, even a large one. Yellowish stone walls whose colour matched that of the rugged terrain kept the town safe from intruders, and the rest of the buildings proved to be built in the same stone, with simple (yet charmy) green panes as roof tiles.

"Looks prosperous" Sokka said as they walked down the main street, "It shouldn't be a problem to find some new stuff here."

"Yeah, I can feel a market square up ahead, seems to be a big crowd there."

It was more of a bazaar, really, with loads of necessities and luxuries in all sorts of stands. Fabrics, gems, bread and the (in)famous earth kingdom cabbage-selling merchant, watching over his produce like a proud father. It wasn't the shops that drew Sokka's and Toph's attention, it was the execution that was taking place up ahead. A skinny man, or boy, he couldn't have been more than nine-teen, with dirty hair was being readied for hanging by a masked executioner. A fancy-looking man in a neat black and green robe stood beside the condemned and read the charges aloud for the crowd that was watching the event unfold.

"You, Min Sheng, stand here today as sentence for your crimes against crown and country."

"No!" The boy shouted as the noose was draped over his head, "I haven't done anything!" The masked executioner gave him a vicious slap to the face to silence him. The fancy-robe man nodded gratefully and continued, "You have been found guilty of treachery, and selling out the patrol routes of army platoons that were later ambushed and annihilated by fire nation forces."

"I swear, I'd never do such a thing, I love my king and kingdom!" The boy was crying and hiccuping in fear. WHACK, another strike to the face. Sokka heard the cartilage break and Toph felt it through the ground.

"Having given up your comrades and fellow brothers in the army, there is but one punishment that is your fate," He turned to the crowd and raised his voice, working up the observes into a frenzy, "He shall hang by his neck 'till his feet quit twitching!" The mob gave a roar of approval, the poor boy was seemed to turn grey as ash but managed to say a few last words to a young boy in the front line with tears streaming down his face, "Tell mother I lo-" He got no further as the executioner pulled the lever and he was hung.

**I'm not done with this execution scene, but I had to cut it off here, so for now at least, people will be left hanging (sorry, evil joke). I got a couple of different paths I'm thinking of taking for the next chapter, the follow-up to this scene, please don't mind leaving a review and giving your wishes! :) For all you ppl in my timezone, goodnight, and to others: good-morning, or good noon, or where-ever you are, have a nice day! :D**


	5. The capture

**Hey folks, my inspiration is abit dry, I've had ALOT of tests in school this week, any ideas are always interesting! Anyhow, november break is approaching, and that means there will be lots and lots of updates for this story! :D**

The young man plummeted toward the ground, the noose tightening around his neck. The rope tightened, but there was no low crack, the man's neck had not been broken. Instead he was doomed to a slow, drawn out death as he tried gasping for air like a fish on dry land. His tongue stuck out, his face went purple and the eyes started to bulge out of their sockets. Meanwhile the crowd cheered as they almost chanted, "HANG, HANG HANG, HANG!" Sokka looked down, and started turning away from the scene when a disturbing picture forced itself into his mind. An image of his father in the noose while he was in the crowd, watching. He felt his eyes water, and he spun around, drawing back his arm and let his boomerang fly.

To the public it was just a bright flash and a swoosh-swoosh-swoosh and the young man dropped from where he was hanging onto the hard earth where he lay gasping for air. The young boy in the crowd rushed forward to him, while the robed official, obviously threatened by this breach of order and his authority yelled for the guards. A handful of guards rushed forward, shoving people aside as they made their way towards what had upset their superior, many weren't too happy about how the soldiers who were supposed to protect them tossed them aside none too gently.

Without help however, the young man would be taken away and hung somewhere else so Sokka rushed up on stage and performed a swift kick straight toward to the executioner's stomach. The man fell backwards into the hanging post and it shook violently. "Get up, and get away, quickly!" Sokka shouted to the would-be hanged man and the younger boy. The younger boy hurried to his feet while the older one still looked dazed. The sound of heavy boots on earth became louder and Sokka felt strong hands force him to the ground hard, bringing a sharp pain to his hip. Meanwhile the official shouted orders to the soldiers.

A massive stone flew through the air, smashing the guards off Sokka with startled yells. "Shape up, Pony-tail boy!" Toph yelled at him while she bended away the rocks two other soldiers were running towards them on and they fell flat to the ground with confused cries. Out of the corner of his eye Sokka say the young man and the boy scurry down an alley away from the guards. That escape route was quickly blocked as four more men rushed towards them and barred the path. "Umm, Toph, time to go..."

"What d'you mean, I haven't had this much fun in ages!" Toph laughed as she sent another burly man flying, the guards, although very macho and muscular, were probably just militia left behind and were certainly not very experienced Earth-benders and relied more on their muscles scaring off any opposition than fighting it off. But Toph certainly wasn't afraid of "muscles", which she loudly proclaimed as the rocks were flying all across the square. Several civilians had been caught up in the fighting and panic that erupted as everyone tried to clear the area as quick as they could. Sokka dodged a shard rock hurled at him by a nearby guard, he rushed forward, but was cut short, almost literally, when the robed official who had disappeared in the beginning returned with a nasty-looking, curved sword that sliced through the air with frightening speed, missing Sokka's face by an inch. Jumping backwards, he recovered his lost balance. The armed man continued the attack together with the nearby guard, stones and steel alternating in the attacks.

Meanwhile, Toph was shouting at her "opponents" to put at least _try _to put up a fight. Sokka was however, slightly in the deep end as he took several cuts to his arms as he attempted to dodge attack after attack and he wished that he had had a classical water tribe shield, thickened with fur, that could have helped him out. Pushed back towards the hanging post with the knocked out executioner, he put a leg against the wooden post and threw himself forward, beneath a horizontal slash, crashing into the man's stomach. They fell to the ground and Sokka immediately held down his opponent's sword arm by the wrist, and brought his fist down hard on the man's hinge joint. The force was enough to cause him to utter a cry and release the sword, which Sokka quickly kicked away, he had no idea how to use it himself, and didn't want to hand it to anyone there who could... He felt the ground beneath him sink as the earthbender who had been with the executioner managed to transform the ground into a trap. The pressure on his shins and calves was extraordinary and Sokka shouted out loud.

The earthbender followed up with lifting a slate of rock above him, and brought it down over Sokka, who luckily for him, had Toph intervening. She brought up a rectangular domino-like block of earth that blocked the path of the other eathbenders attack. She then quickly brought Sokka up out of the ground and he finished off the guard with his trusty boomerang. The square was clear, or as clear as it could be with at least a dozen guards lying knocked out. The enthusiastic crowd that had gathered for a hanging was nowhere to be seen, their entertainment gone awry.

"We better get out of here, and fast, before anymore of our _allies_ try to crush us!" Sokka nodded, and they ran for the town gate. A bell had been wrung somewhere in the city though, and soon they heard more guards behind them. They didn't stop, just continued running for all they were worth. An occasional rock flew past them, shattering against the warm-coloured stone walls. As they neared the gates of the city, they saw that the message of the bell had carried fast; the gates were closing. Toph bended forth a block of earth for them to jump on and she shot them forward on it as a board. The metal gates banged shut as they got to the very gatehouse, crashing into them with a sharp CLANG.

"Get up, we can still take 'em!" Toph was as enthusiastic as ever, but she was cut off by a well-dressed soldier of some 40-something years old in a simple yet commanding attire who stepped forth from the ranks of the guards.

"Bring it, softie!" Toph yelled, and laughed. Sokka winced, _these are actually our allies against the fire nation, how did we get into this mess? Oh right... me._ The man was obviously in charge and he answered firmly, "I will." Steel cages dropped down from the gatehouse and swallowed up Sokka and Toph. "Not so TOUGH now, are you?" The captain laughed merrily and waved to the guards to take the cages away.

**I don't think it's a great story-line yet, but it works out in my head atleast :P I'll be trying to get a clearer goal in the upcoming chapters, as always: take care ppl! :D**


	6. Cruising on sunshine

Aang awoke to find the lazy morning rays of the sun slowing creeping across the room where he had slept. The room was all wood, probably birch, the windows were wide and let in all the morning light one could ever want and the birds were chirping in the dark-green trees outside. The sound made by the wheels of an occasional cart pulled by ostrich-horses as it made its way toward the nearby town. The windows had been left open through the night; Aang didn't want to give up the familiarity of having a breeze around him at night.

So he had woken up every morning for three days now, having recuperated after his... memories? Disease? Whatever it had been, it was gone. A bee buzzed in through the open window and hovered beside his knee while he sat and meditated by the wall. Its small frame was so alive with energy, humming with life force. Aang smiled as he thought of the marvels of nature. In the bed on the other side of the room, Katara stirred.

Their room was, as mentioned, small, but the bed was just tiny, and to avoid incredibly awkward moments Aang had offered Katara the bed, they only had so much money to spend and the charge for a larger room was extortionate. Katara had lended him her sleeping bag, but he slept on it, not in it, honoring his airbending heritage.

"Is it morning already, Aang?" Katara asked drowsily. _She's not quite as bad as Sokka in the morning_ Aang thought before he answered, _but almost._

Having mooched off the innkeeper for breakfast the latest days, Katara said, "We need to get going, probably the nearest town or village where we can buy more supplies, I don't like using up these kind people's hard-earned money, even if we're trying to save the world."

"Yeah, you're right, and maybe we can check out if somebody has heard anything about Sokka and Toph, they aren't exactly the most subtle people we know." That brought a smile to Katara's face. Aang felt warm and happy whenever he made Katara smile, and tried his best to do so whenever he could.

Having said good-bye to the innkeeper, his wife and their one year old baby, who had shamelessly stared at Aang's bald head and arrow-like tattoos and giggle-laughed like babies do when they are happy.

They flew above the green forest, following the dirt road that was just visible through the canopies. The sun stood high in the sky and there was a slight breeze that was warmed by the bright rays of sunlight. Appa roared contently as a flock of beaver-parrots lifted up around them from the trees below. Aang and Katara were surrounded in a vibrant flurry of colourful feathers, laughing without a care in the world as they threw themselves backs-down on the saddle, looking up at the sky, Katara's head on Aang's stomach. He imprinted the memory of it in his mind. _Whatever may happen, I'll always have this memory with me. The sun and its warmth, Appa, colourful animals and the sound of their flapping wings, a light breeze that smelled of late spring and Katara's head on my stomach, this is life, I'll always remember this_. And he did.

They reached a village by late afternoon and landed in the square, the townsfolk excitedly gathered around, whispering of the avatar and air nomads, while the more worried spoke in hushed tones of 'fire nation", "war" and "danger". Most were however, joyed to see the avatar in their village. Having greeted the village elder and received promises that they would be given supplies for as long as was possible free of charge, despite Aang and Katara's objections. What caught their attention was a cart, more of a mobile stand, which sold newspapers. Katara let out a quick "Oh!" rushed up to the cart, while Aang slowly followed, puzzled. By the time he had got up to Katara she had already finished her quick chattering with the vendor and acquired a copy, which she shoved in his field of vision excitedly, "Look, Aang, it's Sokka! And Toph!" It was. Beneath a large headline on the front page was a picture of a square, or plaza, that looked as if it had been the site of a tremendous battle. The ground was cracked, boulders were lying everywhere, a torn Earth kingdom flag waved broken in the air and above it all, on a tall platform of stone stood a victorious warrior with a wicked grin. The warrior was however, obviously short in stature, and female. A semi-stealthy warrior wielding a curved, flying weapon of doom could be seen in the back, with a majestic ponytail. At least, this was how the artist had interpreted the story; large exaggeration of facts had probably taken place, knowing the Earth kingdom media.

"Toph?... and Sokka?" Aang was skeptical, but Katara's conviction eventually convinced him. "Where are they now?"

"They're being transferred to a place called Hui Dau, its in the middle of nowhere" Katara answered him, after consulting their limited map, continuing, "We can fly there and bust them out of Earth kingdom jail!"

"Is it far? I think we should wait until tomorrow to leave to rescue them, we'd be dead tired if we left now."

"Yes, it's pretty far, but we can make it in a few days! But we're going to have to find a place to sleep at for tonight, we leave first thing tomorrow!"

At that very moment, in a place not so far away, Azula, Mai and Ty lee were steaming across the countryside, reading the very same edition of the newspaper Katara had spotted. "I don't see why you bribed the guards to hand the two of them over, and told the newspaper man where we're headed!"

"Ty lee" Azula answered in her regularly calm voice, "Now everybody in the Earth kingdom will have seen the two's faces in the paper, and know where we're going..."

"So?"

"So, the ones who will recognize them in the paper will be the avatar and his other friend, that we haven't captured yet."

"And you think they'll try to rescue them?" Mai interrupted.

"Oh yes, they put so much trust in their little gang of friendship, they'll come."

In the other cabin, Sokka and Toph were locked up in metal boxes. They looked at each other, knowing full well that if Aang and Katara had seen the papers, they would surely try to bust them out of what they thought would be a low-security Earth kingdom prison. Instead they'd be walking straight into a terrible ambush.

Several miles behind the train the banished prince followed the deep indentations left in the ground by the massive, iron train that his sister travelled around in. He pushed the ostrich-horse to run faster.

Close behind the banished prince, a concerned uncle followed the tracks left by a tiring ostrich-horse.

**Any ideas on what's gonna happen? Views on the story so far, what there should be more of, or less of? Anyhow, good luck with the upcoming week folks, avatar state YIPP-YIPP! XD**


End file.
